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Rogers Cup: Andy Murray proves it’s possible to win at home: Cox

Last year in Toronto, the men’s Rogers Cup competition was all about Milos Raonic. Giant posters here, a stadium named in his honour there, grandiose expectations everywhere. The young Canadian won a match, advanced with a walkover past exhausted Olympic champion Andy Murray, then fell in the quarters to John Isner.

Andy Murray kisses the winner's trophy following his victory over Novak Djokovic in the men's final at Wimbledon last month. Murray became the first British male in 77 years to win the tournament. (Clive Brunskill / GETTY IMAGES)

It all seemed a little much. The Maple Leaf Missile hype was overflowing. “Too much wagon ahead of the horse,” said one longtime tennis observer.

This week in Montreal, it’s a different deal. If Raonic, who begins his tournament Tuesday night against Jeremy Chardy of France, is to be the main storyline this week, it will because he picks up his struggling game and wins a few matches first.

In other words, horse proceeds before wagon.

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Instead, the intrigue of this tournament — the first biggie since Wimbledon — revolves around the stars of the game, notably Novak Djokovic, Murray and Rafael Nadal, the three members of the Big Four in attendance after Roger Federer pulled out.

Federer, soon to be 32, has a new racquet and a bad back and some lousy results of late. Nadal, meanwhile, lost in the first round of Wimbledon and clearly isn’t going to be able to play as much tennis now or in the near future as he’d like to because of a wonky left knee.

So maybe we’re down to the Big Two, Djokovic and Murray, winners of the last four Rogers Cups between them and quite probably the two best players on the planet at the moment.

They have met in three of the past four Grand Slam finals, plus they had a memorable clash at the 2012 London Olympics. Djokovic is No. 1 in the world, but Murray beat him in London, at the U.S. Open and at Wimbledon in early July, while the Serb had the upper hand in January at the Australian Open.

Clearly, it is Murray putting the heat on Djokovic more than Nadal or Federer now as he resets after making history by becoming the first British male in 77 years to win at the All England Club.

“I sat down with the guys just a few days ago and talked a little about that, about what I want to try and do,” Murray said in a relaxed press availability at Uniprix Stadium on Sunday. “I want to try and win another Grand Slam. If I can do that, I want to win as many Grand Slams as I can. That’s really the goal now.”

For Murray, someone who knows the kind of scrutiny Raonic is under this week, it’s as though a giant steam valve has been opened since winning Wimbledon. He credited coach Ivan Lendl with helping him find a way to see himself not as an underachiever but as a champion-in-waiting.

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“The thing that was most helpful to me was that he lost his first four Grand Slam finals and I lost my first four Grand Slam finals and felt like I was a loser or a choker or whatever. Speaking to him, it made me feel a little more normal,” said Murray. “He obviously went on to become one of the best of all time. Being able to speak to him on an emotional level about that stuff really helped me.”

“(The documentary) was something I’ve been asked to do for a long time. I said no for nine, 10 months; I said I had no interest in doing that,” he said. “Then after about a year . . . I decided that I was going to do it.

“I still haven’t seen it. I’ve been told not to watch it. But I heard it was really good.”

He’ll get a tricky opponent to start this competition, the winner of the Marcel Granollers-Grigor Dimitrov match. Nadal and Djokovic, meanwhile, are lurking on the other half of the draw.

For Canada, Peter Polansky advanced out of qualifying on Sunday to put a sixth Canadian in the main draw, joining Raonic, Vasek Pospisil, Filip Peliwo, Jesse Levine and Frank Dancevic.

It seems a stretch, but perhaps in a year in which Murray showed the world how to hold serve at home, one of those six will demonstrate that the same can happen here.

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